Darkseid is the first mobile-exclusive character in Injustice: Gods Among Us Mobile. He can be unlocked through his Challenge Mode. Otherwise, he can be randomly obtained from the Challenge Booster Pack, the Special Challenge Booster Packs, as a guaranteed pull from the Alien Invasion Pack, or as a random reward during other character's challenges. However, obtaining him from a pack will not unlock him for direct promotions.
Darkseid is a unique character who inspires strength into bronze teams. Darkseid also at one point had the highest damage stats in the game. However, Darkseid has base stats at 1050 and 1200, a combined total of 2250, which is surpassed by Shazam with 2300 (950, 1350), and now currently he has been surpassed by Batman/Arkham Knight (1200, 1300), Wonder Woman/Justice League (1300, 1200), and the new version of himself, Darkseid/Apokolips (1100, 1400), along with the Dawn of Justice, 2.10 and the Suicide Squad characters.
Strategy
Darkseid's value is highly situational. With his passive abilities and special attacks, Darkseid opens up a wide opportunity of team combinations. While his base stats used to be very high, he has since been overshadowed by newer characters with stats rivaling his and with more practical passives.
Darkseid is commonly teamed with strong bronze characters such as Lex Luthor/Prime, The Flash/Prime, Deathstroke/Insurgency or Nightwing/Prime. While his passive doesn't quite bring them up to gold level, this combination can be seen fairly often in multiplayer, and as maxed bronze cards tend to have relatively more damage than health, they can inflict surprising amounts of damage. These teams were also very popular prior to the introduction of gear and still sees some use as it is one of the cheapest possible combinations to successfully complete Bonus Battle 6 for its high amount of Power Credits.
An elite VII bronze character boosted by Darkseid's passive is generally comparable to an Elite II medium-cost gold character, but an elite III gold character can easily beat every bronze character in Darkseid's team, so Darkseid's passive is useful only for beginners, before they can afford eliting more gold characters.
Another use for his passive is for challenge mode character requirements, particularly nightmare stage. For example, if the challenge requires Green Arrow, Darkseid can boost Green Arrow/Insurgency (bronze) to higher stats than Green Arrow/Prime (silver) without requiring the large investment into Green Arrow/Arrow (gold).
Alternatively, add Catwoman/Batman Returns for 100% more damage to your damage-over-time effects (although due to complications in stacking, the burn of a Fires of Apokolips that hits 200% on the rapid tap would do about 311% damage instead of 300% or 400%). Additionally, Catwoman's special 1, Cat Claws, can cause the opponent to bleed for 10 seconds, and the burn damage will also be increased by a multiplicatively stacking 20% per bleed (stacking additively with itself).
Fires of Apokolips does slightly more main minimum damage than stated, equivalent to upgrading it once more than you had actually upgraded it. When maxed, this gives 5% more base damage, or 3% more overall. Note that the fire damage is not affected at all by upgrading. Additionally, the second regular hit of the special deals flat damage regardless of how much you hit on the rapid tap.
Overall, at 200% on both parts, the maximum damage of Fires of Apokolips is 145% of Darkseid's damage stat provided that his opponent does not tag out, and 95% if they do. In comparison, a regular special 2 does 120%. However, the fire pit hit will be negated if the opponent is blocking, reducing the base damage (prior to reduction by block) to only 51% of his damage stat and not apply the burn, making it a particularly risky move.
Darkseid, along with Shazam and Superman/Godfall, were often used together as an online defense team. While their passives are not very useful for online defense and they have almost no synergy with each other, their very high base stats will attract many attacking teams, as the matching system will try to match players against stronger defense teams, allowing you to gain more battle rating. This has since been mostly become obsolete due to the 2.6 update that introduced 3 new characters whose base stats surpass even Shazam and 2 more that tie with him.
Interactions
Please note that battles are highly situational: this section only mentions cards that have mechanics that, for any reason, are particularly effective with/against, or particularly ineffective against Darkseid. Having a card that "counters" Darkseid does not mean it is always a good choice.
Abilities
Empower Minions: All BRONZE characters on Darkseid's team gain +300% HEALTH and DAMAGE.
Gold
1,050/1,200
Promotion Cost 274,000
Challenge Mode, Challenge Booster Pack, Alien Invasion Pack, Special Challenge Booster Packs, Darkseid Bundle